Paying to Reduce Emissions

The results from a survey conducted by the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) are nothing short of startling: Drivers are willing to pay up to $250 for reducing the carbon dioxide emitted by their vehicles by 80%. They are also willing to sacrifice fuel economy by up 10% and reduce storage (presumably to equip their car with a sizable carbon sequestration unit) by 16%.

Pay more.

Get fewer miles per gallon.

Reduce the space for stuff.

All to reduce CO2 emissions!

Said John Sullivan, an assistant research scientist in UMTRI’s Human Factors Group, “While most efforts at containing carbon dioxide emissions are directed at large-scale stationary producers like coal-fired power plants or other industrial sources, there has also been interest in considering the feasibility of carbon capture from small distributed power plants, like gasoline-fueled internal combustion engines ubiquitous in transportation.”

Yes, they are rather ubiquitous, aren’t they.

The online survey was a random sample of Americans. 536 people participated.